China’s Holiday Spending Trails Pre-Pandemic Levels

China’s domestic travel spending during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday fell short of 2019 levels, fueling concerns that momentum is fading in the country’s post-Covid recovery.

While domestic tourism revenue from Thursday to Saturday increased 44.5% from last year’s break to reach 37.3 billion yuan ($5.2 billion), that figure was still 5.1% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels, according to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The number of tourism trips reached 106 million, a 32.3% increase from last year and 12.8% above 2019 levels. Sunday was an adjusted working day.